Going by the aliases “Plank,” “Jonah” and “Cypher,” 26-year-old Thomasz Szabo took part in a years-long conspiracy to place bogus 911 calls (swatting), claiming emergencies were taking place at the homes of top government officials, and make bomb threats against government buildings and houses of worship, according to Justice Department.
Szabo and a co-conspirator, 21-year-old Serbian national Nemanja Radovanovic, allegedly targeted about 100 people, including members of Congress, governors, cabinet-level executive branch officials and state officials.
He is currently in a Washington DC jail. He is slated to be sentenced in a Washington, DC, federal court in October.
https://nypost.com/2025/06/03/us-news/romanian-national-pleads-guilty-to-swatting-over-75-public-officials-including-an-ex-president/?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=nypost&utm_medium=social
While I completely agree that the asshole in question should have every charge available thrown at him, there's also the disturbing thought that any random person can call the po-po on some other random person, say the right words to elicit a "SWAT" response, and there's a better than average chance that the government will accidentally kill someone on purpose. We need to eliminate the militarization of our CIVILIAN police force and remind those gung-ho asswipes to settle down. Eliminating or radically changing the "qualified immunity" for police officers would be a nice first step. Throwing a dozen or so in jail for being overly gung-ho would be a good second step.
ReplyDeleteThe very fact that we equate a "SWAT call" with "attempted murder" shows how out of control the balance of power is between the govt and the people.
All very good points Don. We pretty much see eye to eye on this issue. The militarization of police forces puts citizens at higher risks for 'mistakes' to be made when you introduce a high pressure situation like a SWAT call. There should be NO kicking doors in on calls like that until the situation can be absolutely verified.
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